At first the water was cold, I mean it’s May in the Pacific North West! Water temps I heard were in the mid 60s and the air temp was down in the mid 40s. But after about 10 mins of warm up it was fine. I was reminded of XTERRA nationals in Tahoe in 08 - without the choppy water that swim had. This was also the first time swimming in my Profile Design Gold Cell wetsuit and it rocked. It fit like a glove, was super flexible and more buoyant than any other wetsuit I’ve worn.

I was not sure how I’d compare to these other triathletes and swimmers so I started in the back of the back. Mainly because of one guy I talked to before the race who was discussing some of the difficulties he had in his last 10k…swim! The guy raced over 6 miles swimming. That shows some kind of dedication to this sport. When the swim went off being that far back in the pack started me swimming past people right away. The course was squared off at the first end and a point at the other. After the first buoy I was in my rhythm and working on keeping my form. After the second buoy I was struck by how much I love Hagg Lake. Cool clear water that doesn’t taste like an impending intestinal parasite…

Everyone was very polite at the turns-I didn’t get hit once! I saw some people back-stroking around the buoys even. I felt good and kept my focus on my swim form. It seems the epic 5am battles between the pillow and the pool, along with some excellent coaching, is helping my comfort level in the water - I’ve been able to get through both this and the Vegas swim without the normal panic I’ve gotten in previous year’s races.

After getting so turned around in Vegas from bad sighting I have been working on swimming a straighter line and sighting more. I’ll bet that looks pretty funny in the pool but better sighting combined with the almost one dozen buoys on this 2000m course I did pretty well at staying headed in the right direction. Pushing a straight line to the last buoy went well then turning left took me in sight of the beach exit with only a few hundred yards to go. I pushed harder and finished with a time better than some of 1500m XTERRA swim splits of previous years, at 0:34:33.00 I placed 10th in my age group (M30-39) and 50th overall! Thanks to everyone who has helped me improve my swim this season.

Vegas is a great race without a doubt - one lap swim, desert bike course with plenty of challenging climbs and technical descents, wide hard pack with plenty of room for passing, and a run course that seems like it doesn’t stop - it’s either up or down. Since it is an early season race the heat was not really an issue (it never got over 85 or so) and proper application of sunscreen even kept the fairer skinned athletes from burning to a crisp.

The venue couldn’t be beat, the Loews Lake Las Vegas Resort was great to me and everyone I talked to. Having the XTERRA athletes descend can be quite a culture shock to some but these folks handled it exceptionally. From letting us all wheel our bikes through the lobby, onto the elevators and into our rooms to the bell hops realizing just how heavy full carbon fiber bikes magically become when loaded into a bike box to just how particular and nervous some athletes can become when their bike boxes need to be loaded or unloaded - I enjoyed the venue very much and think the bar is set fairly high for the race experience at other locations.

My race went ok - hindsight and a review of the results (mainly the splits) helps to see that. I didn’t finish as well as I would have liked (do we type A’s ever finish where we want?) but I was naively not expecting the talent that races the championship events. I went into it with a one week taper and a hard effort two weeks before at a local race.

The swim - I kind of forgot what lakes can taste like, what it feels like to get in the middle of the swim pack racing for the first buoy and what it feels like to round the last buoy and lose my goggles to a wild swim stroke. Not to mention sighting! Lakes and rivers don’t have black lines at the bottom. I swear if left alone I’d swim in big wide clock-wise circles. ha ha.

The bike - I tried paying better attention to my tire selection for this race and chose the Specialized Captain Control front and rear. They turned out to be a great traction tire, they gripped like mad and with the exception of one washout when I picked the wrong line they held every line. I didn’t feel like I had any power though and walked all the hills.

The run - my legs felt pretty dead on the run as well and although I pushed through it I wasn’t able to power up the hills the way I wanted. I finished feeling like I was spent, so for that day I gave it all I had.

A lot has happened since my last blog update… I raced Smith Lake Xterra at Fort Bragg, NC and came in second overall by one minute and 1^st in my age group.

Two weeks later, I raced the Southeast Championship and qualified for Worlds! There were only two other girls in my age group (which is a good turnout for the 20-24 female AG). The heat in AL was a killer! I spent two weeks visiting my family in Memphis prior to the race in an effort to acclimate to the heat but I was definitely struggling just like everyone else out there. Going out the day before the race to pre ride the course was definitely NOT a good idea, especially in the heat of the day. Even though I had an “easy” week leading up to the race, spending two hours in 95+ heat and humidity the day before the race will not leave you feeling fresh… lesson learned!!

After the SE race I was going to make the drive up to Richmond for the East Championship, but after my not so good run (a lot of walking and lack of running fitness from early season knee issues) I decided to skip Richmond, get some trail running in, and focus on the Mountain Championships a month later.

So that leaves us up to date with my racing efforts… I flew out West two weeks ago to Montana to hang out with MELRAD teammate Tim Holland, visit the Rockies and Pacific NW, and get some quality training in while escaping the heat of the Mid-South. Being done with school, I want to travel before finding a job and I knew I did not want to stay in Memphis another summer!

The first week, we spent in and around Bozeman, Montana. Tim’s sister got hitched, we got in some sweet altitude training (makes me a bit nervous for the Mountain Championships!) and I got to see the area. I’ve never been to Montana and I absolutely LOVED it! I tried convincing Tim to just leave me (and my Specialized) in Bozeman but he somehow talked me out of it.

The trails and riding in this part of Montana are incredible– one ride we did, we climbed for 2.5 hours and turned around and descended in less then 30 minutes! Besides holding my cherished packs of delicious Blackberry GU, I found a new use for the side pocket of my Nathan Hydration Pack… the drawstrings are perfect for holding flowers (even when you crash)!

SNOW!

On our way to WA, we stopped to watch the end of Ironman Coeur d’Alene.. so inspiring.!

This past week I’ve been hanging out in Olympia, WA, got in a couple of rides, did some rainy runs, and found a master swim program at the YMCA that I’m super excited about.

Wednesday night we headed out for a group mountain bike ride with the Friends of Capital Forest. This was an awesome and friendly group of almost twenty riders and included some dogs that incidentally kicked our butts, even going downhill! We rode for about 2.5 hours and then a bunch of people grilled out at the trailhead! Being new to the area, I figured this was a fun way to meet some cool locals with our same interests and to get introduced to some of the over 200 miles of single-track trails that are in the Capital Forest area.

Happy 4^th of July!

Xterra America Tour Championship race #2 was hosted by the great city of Waco TX representing the South Central region. I have to admit, I wasn’t expecting much from TX, but what we got was a challenging swim in the steady current of the Brazos River, some very technical and fun singletrack and a run course that was basically 6 miles of rocky and twisty hill repeats. Xterra never disappoints and Waco was no exception.

Having raced xterra for a few years now, I have to say that these Cup races are where it is at. The folks at Xterra put on a great event no matter the venue, and having the expo and a deep pro field to race against each time really fires me up. Granted there are some amazing local races around the country, but if you are going to race, you might as well race the best. At least that’s my opinion.

Once again I found myself up against some really tough competition in my division. Adam Wirth from Boise and newcomer Shiloh Mielke from NC both made the trip, and both kicked my butt in Vegas. Well, they both kicked my butt again here, but not by quite as much. Adam actually won, but due to an accidental shortcut on the run, he was docked two minutes and ended up with second. When the top guys in your division are consistently finishing in the top 10 among the pros, you know its a tough class. Must go faster….

My Epic was dialed in pretty well and the Larsen TTs were fast as usual. What really made a difference on this course was the SRAM XX groupset. The 2×10 was perfect for a technical course that required quick and frequent shifting. The front shifting is about as good as it gets and can be shifted back and forth under stress without holding back a bit. The tighter spacing of the 10 speed cassette made for smoother transitions on the steep terrain. I’m sold 100% on it.

Adam and I came out of T1 together after a decent swim and I was able to hold on for a while but eventually he pulled away. After that I was lucky enough to be able to lock on to Shonny Vs wheel for about half an hour before she pulled away as well. She is a really smooth rider….maybe not quite as smooth as Coach Mel, but a great rider nonetheless. After that it was nearly a solo ride to T2. The bike trails in Waco were really well maintained and a couple of sections were so fast and flowy you almost forgot you were racing. Just at the end of the bike, a guy came past me and I noticed a 30 on his calf, which meant my division, and of course it was Shiloh. I held on and we came out of T2 together.

Now, I know I’m not the fastest runner out there, but I can hold my own when I’m feeling good, and I flat got dropped. Out of T2 you go straight up what is called Jacob’s Ladder and it is a nearly vertical stone staircase about 80 feet high, with each stair a slightly different height. By the time I got to the top, he was 50 feet in front of me and gaining by the second. Knowing that he has a world ranking for trail running and a VO2 max of over 90 helped a little with my wounded pride. I will say that the Avi-Stoltz shoes were about as perfect a shoe as you could have on this course. The angled tread and aggressive side lugs just gripped everything on this technical course so you could really just bury it and pound away without a second thought about your footing.

I ended up getting third in my division and third overall in the amateur division, but I was psyched with the result. Slowly but surely it’s all coming along. Got my Maui bid and apparently also qualified for to race with Team USA in the ITU Cross World Championships in Spain in 2011…no clue what that’s about, but I like the sound of it.

Pro Melraders Emma Garrard and Coach Mel both made the pro podium, so though it was a slim group, it was a solid result all around. My major regret was not getting to witness Craig Evans racing the entire race in nothing but a speedo…total throwback to the old school tri days, I love it. Next up the Bump and Grind bike race this weekend and then on to the Southeast Cup where there will be a whole new slate of division competition as the races start to roll East.

My takeaways from this race are 1) must go faster and 2) I need to get me some badonkadonk. Badonkadonk = power = go faster…any suggestions I’d love to hear them.

Train hard. See ya on the trails.

Adam Wirth, Shiloh Mielke and Me

Instead of walking at graduation,  I decided to do something really memorable and race Xterra ACE Big Canyon in West Virginia! This was my second Xterra for the season (West Championship in Vegas was the first) and my dad was able to make it out to cheer me on with our dog Zoe.

I did this race for the first time 4 years ago when I first started riding and doing triathlons. I couldn’t pass on the opportunity to do the race again this year. The course is epic, swimming a mile and a half down a river, then running eight miles up the side of a mountain and mountain biking at the end. The Ace staff and volunteers are always awesome. Plus, my teammate Marcus was going to be there.

This race is notorious for it’s muddy conditions and this year would be no different.  A huge amount of rain fell on the area a week prior so I knew what to expect on the trails. However, I didn’t expect the swim to get cancelled because of the amount of rain. I was pretty disappointed I didn’t get to race in my new wetsuit from Profile Design.

We left early Saturday morning so I could pre-ride the course and have time to set up our tent before it got dark. It was nice that our campsite was only 100 ft away from the transition area!

Going into the race I was pretty nervous about my running fitness. After Vegas I took some time off from running to recover and prepare for Collegiate Road Nationals and had only started back up running again the week before the race. My longest run leading up to Vegas was around 40 minutes, so I knew running 8.3 miles with 1000 ft of elevation gain would be a huge challenge for me. I definitely started to fade the last couple of miles but was able to hold off the other girls.

Going into the bike I was first women and 10^th overall. My dad was able to give me time splits at various parts of the course. While I was getting my stuff together the night before, he was planning the route he and Zoe would take, running from aid station to aid station.  Good thing he’s a runner!

During the bike, I was able to hold off the other girls and started picking off some of the boys in front of me to finish 7^th overall. Marcus killed it, even making a wrong turn for a huge time delay and still managed to race back to fourth overall!

After the race we enjoyed free burritos provided by ACE and my post race favorite, massages!